Physicist Awarded the Erdős–Rényi Prize in Network Science

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Adilson E. Motter, an expert in network dynamics at Northwestern University, has received the 2013 Erdős–Rényi Prize in network science from the Network Science Society.

Motter is being honored for his outstanding work in network science; the citation notes “his groundbreaking contributions to the study of synchronization phenomena and the control of cascading failures in complex networks.”

The prize is given each year to one researcher in the field of network science under the age of 40. It consists of a cash award, a plaque and an honor lecture at the International Conference on Network Science (NetSci2013). Motter received his award June 7 at the Royal Library in Copenhagen.

Motter is the Harold H. and Virginia Anderson Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He also is an executive committee member of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems (NICO).

Motter will donate $3,000 from his award to Northwestern undergraduate students through activities promoting the most outstanding students in the physics and astronomy program.

Motter studies how information and perturbations propagate through complex networks and how they shape the collective behavior of systems as diverse as biochemical, technological and social networks.

In particular, by understanding how failures propagate through a network, he has been able to devise control interventions that can mitigate the effect of deleterious perturbations in physical, ecological and biological networks.